Aldi's first Android smartphone is £80 and super-basic

Aldi is launching its first budget smartphone today, as well as
relaunching its highly successful Lifetab Android tablet.

At just £80, Aldi's first foray into the smartphone market is in
line with its cut-price culture, but these days you can get some
pretty decent devices for less than £100 -- can Aldi compete?

On price yes, it seems. But when it comes it to specs the answer
is sadly no.

Inside is a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of
in-built storage. Fortunately in the chassis there is a microSD
slot so you can expand the memory by up to 32GB. The 1,300mAh
battery isn't going to give you much juice, but at least the 4-inch
screen, with a paltry resolution of 480x800 pixels, won't tax it
too much. There's also a 2-megapixel camera on the back, for you to
capture slightly fuzzy snaps. On paper, it is pretty much the
bottom-of-the-range device -- the lowest we'd ever recommend you
go.

At least the phone runs the latest version of Android though.
The same cannot be said for the second re-release of Aldi's Lifetab
(it was also put back on sale in
March) which is still running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and hasn't
seen the specs upgraded either. It's got a similar arrangement of
internal components to Argos' latest 7-inch tablet, but while both theses device might
look like attractive bargains at £80, a little extra cash goes a
long way.

Aldi

Argos's £100 7.85-inch MyTablet boasts a quad-core processor and
5-megapixel forward-facing camera, for example. Similarly, spend an
extra £10 to get your hands on either the Nokia Lumia 630 or the Motorola Moto E and you'll have a much better experience than
you would using Aldi's £80 smartphone.

Both the phone and tablet are available today, and a special
version of the tablet for children is also available at the same
price. It comes equipped with colourful rubber edges, making it
ideal for sticky-fingered nippers who have a tendency to drop
things.